12.14.2015 Old Testament: Amos 2.6–8

To read the Bible in a year, read Amos 1–3 on December 14, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

The Lord taught Israel how to live, which included taking care of others, but the nation chose to ignore those instructions, and they suffered for it,

Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of Israel, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they sell the righteous for silver,
And the poor for a pair of sandals.
They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor,
And pervert the way of the humble.
A man and his father go in to the same girl,
To defile My holy name.
They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge,
And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.”
(Amos 2.6–8) 

Israel, Israel, the people of God, would sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals. This only began the list of their sins. Eventually the Lord sent the Assyrians against the Northern Kingdom and the brutal Assyrians pounced on the Lord’s people.

We can say the name of the Lord all day, but if we think that allows us to escape punishment for impenitent sin, then we will have to learn as Israel did.